Dr. Isabella Danel is the Deputy Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organization for the Americas. A national of the United States of America, she received her medical degree from the Albany Medical College, New York, United States, in 1977, and her master's in Community Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, United Kingdom, in 1991.

Dr. Danel began her career in 1982 as attending physician at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL. In 1985, she moved to Estelí, Nicaragua, where she worked as Medical Consultant and Instructor at the Estelí Regional Hospital, and Technical Advisor to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. In 1992, she was appointed as Clinical Research Fellow in the Maternal and Child Epidemiology Unit at the LSHTM, London, United Kingdom.

In 1993, Dr. Danel joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she had served in various positions of responsibility in the fields of research and epidemiology, including the position of Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Behavioral Epidemiology and Demographic Research Branch; Preventive Medicine Resident at the CDC's WHO Collaborating Center in Perinatal Care and Health Services; Chief of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Epidemiology Unit; Deputy Chief of the Pregnancy and Infant Health Branch, Division of Reproductive Health; secondment to the World Bank as senior public health advisor in the Health, Nutrition and Population Unit of the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office; Director of the CDC Regional Office for Central America and Panama stationed in Guatemala; and Associate Director for Program Development, Center for Global Health.

In March 2013, Dr. Danel was appointed as Chief, Field Support Branch, Division of Reproductive Health at the CDC Headquarters, a position that she held until the date of her appointment as PAHO Deputy Director.

Dr. Danel has written numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on maternal mortality and other public health subjects. She is committed to PAHO's mission to work with Member States to promote equity in health and improve the quality of life for the people in the Americas.